When selecting a package for a manufactured product that is to be sold or shipped, product manufacturers and sellers typically must select a package from a specific inventory of available package sizes and shapes. However, this may result in a package that is not entirely suitable for the product. For example, when using a package that is larger than the product requires, additional packaging material may be needed to avoid damage to the product during handling. In addition, a larger package can require increased shipping and handling costs.
Thus, there has been significant interest in the manufacture of personalized packaging for small volume applications as they might arise from needing to add a secondary package around a primary package, from personalizing or customizing a primary or secondary package, from small test or sample runs, or from any other reason requiring short runs. However, current methods of making personalized packages are time consuming and require manipulation of machine parameters by experienced personnel. Thus, a user may only select from a limited number of templates. It is not easy for a novice user to create personalized packaging through a user interface.
In addition, automated package generation systems have limited variability. Although some package generation devices may produce packages from templates, the templates provide limited options. A very large number of templates would be required to enable a current package generation system to create, for example, a wide variety of package sizes.
This document describes systems and methods that present solutions to the problems discussed above, and which may also provide additional benefits.